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Good morning. We
interrupt your regularly scheduled GameStop programming with breaking
news out the cereal industry: Apparently, there is a major shortage of
Grape-Nuts.
As the brand manager explained
yesterday, “Grape-Nuts is made using a proprietary technology and a
production process that isn’t easily replicated,” bamboozling its supply
chain and thwarting production (which, it is important to note,
involves neither grapes nor nuts).
We’ll stay on this story.
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NASDAQ
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13,070.69
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- 2.00%
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S&P
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3,714.24
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- 1.93%
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DOW
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29,982.62
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- 2.03%
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GOLD
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1,849.80
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+ 0.65%
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10-YR
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1.064%
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+ 1.40 bps
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OIL
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52.17
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- 0.32%
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*As of market close.
Here's what these numbers mean.
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Markets: A long time ago in a galaxy
far, far away, we used to talk about the stock market in terms of the
S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow. Those major indexes all performed very poorly yesterday, capping their biggest weekly drop since October.
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Economy: US consumer spending fell
in December for the second straight month. Inflation ticked up, but not
enough to worry the Fed, which wants inflation to average 2% over the
long-term.
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Francis Scialabba
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As gripping
as the GameStop saga is, we’ll begin today’s newsletter with more
pressing developments for public health, the economy, and our ability
to, you know, eat at a restaurant without four layers of clothing.
Yes, we're talking vaccines
And there’s good news to share: Yesterday, Johnson & Johnson said its Covid-19 vaccine was 66% effective
in preventing Covid-19 in a major clinical trial. That may not seem so
great compared to the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which
are more than 90% effective, but health officials are celebrating it as a
big win. Here’s why:
- This
vaccine is a boss when it comes to stopping the worst instances of
Covid, preventing 85% of severe disease and 100% of hospitalizations and
deaths. “If you can prevent severe disease in a high percentage of
individuals, that will alleviate so much of the stress and human
suffering and death,” said Dr. Fauci.
- Unlike the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, J&J’s requires just one dose.
It also doesn’t need to be kept in Siberia-level temps to prevent
spoilage like the others: it’ll stay fresh for three months in the
standard refrigeration range of 35–46 degrees Fahrenheit.
Tying it all together: J&J’s
vaccine won’t need to land many of the logistical somersaults required
by the other two approved vaccines, which means it could supercharge the
vaccination rollout in the coming months.
What about the other Covid-19 variants?
This is
where it gets a little trickier. J&J’s vaccine was more effective in
the US than in other regions, including South Africa, where a new
variant called B1351 is more prevalent.
- While new
strains present significant challenges to vaccine developers, they
weren’t unexpected...and they’re not an impossible hurdle to overcome.
Vaccines may just need adjustments.
- Novavax, for example, is working on a booster shot that can fortify its original vaccine against new Covid-19 variants.
Looking ahead...J&J will apply for emergency use authorization next week, and it may get clearance in March.
+ While we’re here: The EU approved AstraZeneca’s vaccine for adult use.
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Smash Mouth/YouTube
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After curbing trading of certain hyper-volatile “meme stocks” on Thursday, online brokerages like Robinhood lifted some of those restrictions yesterday, allowing retail traders to send AMC and GameStop flying once more.
- GameStop closed the day up 68% for a weekly gain of 400%. AMC popped 54% to close the week +278%.
Hedge funds are bending, but aren’t breaking
Well, most
of them. Citron Research, one of the most vocal firms to take a short
position against GameStop, announced that it would stop publishing
short-seller reports after it logged a 100% loss on some GameStop
positions. But despite short-selling funds losing a collective ~$20 billion so far this year, short interest in GameStop is only down 8% from last week.
Zoom out: The
volatility in the market has lawmakers and pundits split. Senator
Elizabeth Warren is lobbying for more oversight of the brokerages that
halted trading. “To have a healthy stock market, you’ve got to have a
cop on the beat,” she said. (The SEC put out a statement yesterday
saying it's "closely monitoring" recent activity in "certain stocks'
trading prices.")
But Shark Tank’s
Kevin O'Leary doesn’t think the crazy swings are all bad. “[Investors]
are learning about the risks of the market. We forgot to educate them in
high school so let them learn in the real world, which is even better,”
he said on CNBC.
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GitHub
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Seems like
the writers of Earth are running out of material, because amateur
traders on Reddit are banding together to push up the price of another
asset: Dogecoin. The cryptocurrency spiked more than 500% this week.
And while a
single Dogecoin isn’t worth much—just $0.0565 as of this writing,
compared to bitcoin’s $35,000—what perked our ears isn’t the price, but
the origin story: Dogecoin started as a joke.
- The
punchline? Based on 2013’s popular shiba inu meme, Dogecoin is a parody
of bitcoin that was intended to poke fun at the concept of
cryptocurrency. I.e., If any digital currency can be valuable, why not a
digital currency based on a meme?
That punchline has gotten a lot more punchy recently, as members of the Reddit forum r/SatoshiStreetBets and elsewhere rallied to push Dogecoin’s value “to the moon.”
Zoom out: The
wild trading in the stock market has spilled over to the world of
cryptocurrencies—and so have the growing pains. Digital currency
exchanges Coinbase and Bittrex both experienced outages Friday, while
Robinhood temporarily paused instant deposits from cryptocurrency
purchases.
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SPONSORED BY THE MOTLEY FOOL
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Josephine County Public Health
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On Thursday,
healthcare workers in Oregon were on their way back from a vaccination
site when a trailer crashed on a snowy road, stranding cars for hours.
While most drivers would sigh and crank up the heat, these volunteers
had to consider what to do with some ultra-precious cargo: six doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Rather than
let the shots expire from lack of proper refrigeration, the volunteers
went car-door-to-car-door asking stranded drivers if they wanted to be
vaccinated.
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They got some takers: “We had one
individual who was so happy, he took his shirt off and jumped out of the
car,” Michael Weber, a public health director, told the NYT.
Bottom line:
Healthcare workers have already been deemed the MVPs of this pandemic,
but the chilly heroes in Oregon said their decision was an easy one.
“Our No. 1 rule right now is nothing gets wasted,” said Weber.
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Giphy
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This week’s
GameStop news is a little like “Despacito”: You know you’re going to get
sick of it at some point, but until then...hammer the repeat button.
To help you
better digest one of the most dramatic finance stories in years, we
compiled insightful reads/listens/videos on the subject to fill your
Saturday.
The best long reads
The best podcasts
The best from social media
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New York City restaurants
can open for indoor dining at 25% capacity on Valentine’s Day, as long
as current Covid trends continue, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
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United Airlines warned 14,000 employees they could be furloughed once payroll support from the government expires April 1.
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More than 1,100 students at Columbia University have begun a tuition strike.
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IPO news: Roblox has reportedly delayed its public offering due to SEC scrutiny of its revenue accounting, while Honest Co., a beauty products company cofounded by Jessica Alba, filed confidentially for an IPO, according to Bloomberg.
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Incredible news: Apple has greenlighted a TV series on WeWork, starring Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto. It’s called WeCrashed.
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SPONSORED BY THE MOTLEY FOOL
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Test drive: Emerging
Tech Brew writer Ryan Duffy took a spin in the new 2021 Ford Mustang
Mach-E, the poster child of the automaker's multibillion-dollar embrace
of electric vehicles. Read his review.
Weekend conversation starters...that aren’t about GameStop:
- Speak with (and maybe insult) each other in Shakespearean
- Name a worse pizza combo than pineapple and olives.
- What’s scarier: a voicemail or a doorbell?
- Play Chopped by taking turns naming three ingredients and coming up with an app, main, or dessert.
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Francis Scialabba
The theme of
today’s ingenious Brew Crossword, written by Stuart Agler, will be as
easy to spot as a billboard...once you figure it out, that is. Play it here.
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January 30th, 2021
Biden Commerce Nom Makes Huge Admission
Dave Portnoy calls for people to be jailed over this hedge fund scandal
Biden Press Sec Dodges Question on Cuomo’s Death Counting Scandal
The video of the “confrontation” between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Cori Bush…
HAWLEY: Biden is Trying to Run the Country ‘By Executive Fiat’ Not Democracy Read More
| CUOMO SPIRALS: Governor Caves, Will Allow Indoor Dining on Valentine’s Day at 25% Capacity in NYC |
| Read More |
| NYT writer arrested for allegedly working as secret agent of the Iranian government |
| Another day, another New York Times scandal. Yet, barely any coverage. Kaveh Afrasiabi, an opinion writer for the New Y [...] |
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